The cesspools of Singapore

This story highlights what is wrong with STOMP:

She’s a ‘troublemaker’, netizen deritz said on The Straits Times interactive website Stomp.

‘Should sue her for bringing in the virus!’ he added.

She wasn’t sick when she flew back (the reason why she wasn’t pulled out from the thermal scans at Changi), and when symptoms presented itself, she went straight to the doctors.

Of Miss Wee, shadou said on The Straits Times online forum: ‘She shouldn’t have come back to Singapore if she was feeling unwell.

‘Remember the woman who came back from China and spread Sars here? She was the first and it killed many, including her family.

‘Now this student does the same and puts us all at risk, especially those that came into contact with her during the long flight back. Totally ignorant if you ask me.’

Fellow netizen antiwisefc said Miss Wee and her schoolmates should not have travelled to the US since it has the second highest number of confirmed and suspected cases – over 6,000 to date. Ten people in the US have died from the virus.

‘Can’t imagine people here are so dumb…,’ antiwisefc said.

Yes. Smarter people like antiwisefc would cancel a fully-paid for trip to New York and bear a F on their transcripts (and their GPA) even though their school (SMU) said it’s okay.

Notwithstanding now-stupid links with SARS (the mortality rate for SARS was much, much, much higher and symptoms more distinguishable from a common illness), the New Paper took the cake by revealing the name of the poor Patient Zero. It was not necessary and would just lead to the poor girl getting harassed.

Parallels can be drawn with SARS – the poor Patient Zero in that case unwittingly spread the virus, killing several close relatives and friends. And then she kena harassed by the media.

There’s a reason why I bought a copy of the New Paper once and never again – it’s not worth the paper its printed on. And rather than naming and shaming the Patients Zero, we should name and shame Joanna Hor and Geraldine Yeo, the newsroom interns that wrote the atrocious excuse for journalism.

Hello from Bangalore

Nothing makes me miss Singapore more than doing an internship in an unfamiliar third-world city. In my second week now.

While Kuala Lumpur is infinitely better a city than Bangalore (7-Elevens, Kiosks and other knock-offs: how much I miss those), there are lessons learnt. For one, unlike cities like Singapore and Tokyo, with an air of predictability, cities like Kuala Lumpur and Bangalore and be very inaccessible to people unfamiliar to the city.

In Bangalore, you can’t flag down taxis (you have to call to book) and haggling with three-wheeler autorickshaw drivers is a necessity, especially if you can’t speak Kannada. Likewise in KL, though, hopefully with a fare increase, taxis in KL would be less annoying. Public transport is entirely inaccessible in Bangalore (routes information is only in Kannada), similar to KL. Driving for non-locals is not even a consideration.

Unlike Bangalore, tourism is a huge part of the KL economy – and therefore, KL has to deal with a lot more people entirely unfamiliar with the peculiarities of the city.

AWARE parallels *anything* if you’re going to be that stupid

Worst Forum letter in a long time.

The Aware incidents have glaringly highlighted the fragility of our multiracial and multireligious society. It has given us a useful peek into the potential troubles that may crop up when there is a polarisation of a particular view championed on grounds of a faith – real or perceived.

The Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) was an interest group with merely 300 members until recently. Yet, the racial and religious mix of its ‘new’ executive committee made some Singaporeans uncomfortable.

Yeah. It was just the religious mix of the old new exco of AWARE that cheesed people off. Nothing about the hostile takeover. If they were all committed atheists, no one would care. Rigghhtttt. (If minority representation in Parliament, by the way, is the goal, there are other ways to achieve that – reserve seats, using proportional representation, etc. – that doesn’t have this queer side effect of giving the PAP an insurmountable advantage).

1Perak?

Signs Najib needs to hire new PR people:

PEKAN, May 10 – Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak says the Barisan Nasional (BN) government is willing to cooperate with the opposition parties to resolve the political crisis in Perak but this does not mean that it would agree to form a coalition government.

It’s pretty hard to cooperate the side that is using force instead of law to push their way in, no?

The prime minister said the cooperation should be based on the spirit of mutual respect and adherence to the country’s law.

The same “adherence to the country’s law” that led to the court deciding on the validity of the Speaker’s decision (violating the Federal constitution), having the friendly, independent Deputy Speaker chair a session when the Speaker is right there, voting on motions before the session started, insisting on being part of the assembly even though the intrusive, illegal court action didn’t even declare the 3 March sitting (where motions to ratify the Exco six was ratified), arresting lawyers wanting to represent government detainees, etc.?

The Perak coup may be legal, but clearly the Najib and Zambry administrations couldn’t give a rat’s ass about rule of law.

Najib was commenting on the statement by DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang yesterday that he (Lim) was willing to meet Najib to discuss the Perak political impasse. Najib stressed that the Perak political crisis could be avoided if all parties adhered to the law and respected one another.

Precisely, Najib.

“We don’t want the situation (in Perak) to prolong. We want to serve the people, for everyone in Perak and throughout the country,” the prime minister said.

Then have fresh elections. It is the only way to solve the impasse. If Najib wants “to serve the people”, why not have elections?

How’s Seth?

The name “Seth” is my second-choice (I wanted Zackary/Zachary/Zachariah/et al for the longest time, but then I met Zak Lim, so that would make it awkward), but I think it’s a pretty nifty name. It means “placed/appointed” and he’s the third son of Adam and Eve – I’m the third son too. Another top contender is “Zedekiah” (the Lord my justice), simply because I would have the coolest nick ever – Zed. Compared to nicks ranging to Raj to janjan.

What do you guys think?

P.S. If I tagged you in Facebook, it means that your opinion is most valued. Otherwise, you may still comment, and I shall take it into consideration.

P.P.S. When my best friends can’t pronounce “Rajan”–which is pretty incredulous to me–I sort of have to give in to the whole Christian name bit.

P.P.P.S. Would using Zachariah when I know someone with a similar name be entirely wrong? I mean, it’s my top choice. It means “God has remembered” – though while it was pretty apt some five years ago, its not as much these days.

P.P.P.P.S This is sort of inspired by the fact that I would be living in some place completely different for prolong periods of time for the first time in three years, making the name transition bit easier. So I kinda want to make my mind up now. Plus, I don’t want people to confuse me for Indian and therefore draw me into awkward Hindi or Kannada conversations.

To do list

Stop checking repeatedly to see if internship offer in Bangalore, India was a cruel, cruel prank.

Start packing. (Start finding a place to move all these assorted pieces of clutter to. *hints* friends *hints*)

Start finding a place to stay in a city I couldn’t even locate on a map a few days ago (I always thought Karnataka was on the Bay of Bengal. Stop laughing).

Call Matthew to get him to suspend his/mine phone line.

Find out what visa to get and how to get it.

Stop assuming the visa process was as painless as the Singapore one (which didn’t involve any visit to any High Commission/embassy).

Check again if I got the offer and this isn’t a cruel, cruel prank.

Fashion Police

Don’t wear black when the Royal Malaysian Fashion Police is on the prowl:

Did not respect the court ruling?

Zambry: “You are asking about the microphone being switched off when you should go back to the basic issue, the speaker didn’t respect the court ruling,”

Pray tell, which court ruling declared the 3 March assembly sitting illegal, and which court ruling gave a binding (very constitutional) order for the suspension of the Barisan seven to be revoked.

Also, Zambry claims that Barisan Nasional is merely resisting a “tyranny of the minority”. If indeed, Pakatan Rakyat is in the minority, why is Zambry and his godfather Najib so viciously afraid of an election? You may be the de facto mentri besar Zambry, but you aren’t the de jure mentri besar – and you have absolutely no legitimacy. Eventually, you would have to call for elections. I hope you have career plans beyond 2013.

For your petty little desire to be a the leader of Perak against the wishes of your people, you have destroyed federal and state institutions. There is a special place in hell for your kind.

The end of Malaysian constitutionalism

Hello Insta-readers. If it gets too confusing, it is – try Wikipedia. The matter isn’t who was originally right, but rather who wrought the most damage.

For lighter stuff, check out this video!

And a last bit before you begin, Barisan Nasional (National Front, a fitting name) controls the federal government, and have since independence. Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Alliance) controls five states… or four, depending on where you stand. They are the federal opposition in authoritarian Malaysia.

The last blow to the constitution took place just minutes ago in Perak – the Perak State Assembly Speaker was ejected out of the State Assembly, allowing Barisan Nasional to place their new Speaker in his ill-gotten seat. For those not in the know (i.e. my non-Malaysian readers), essentially what happen was that in late January and early February, three assemblymen from the ruling Pakatan Rakyat became independents “friendly to Barisan Nasional”, after spending sometime missing. Two of them were charged on 26 January with corruption, a charge that mysteriously got dropped after the switch.

The Speaker declared those seats vacant, using undated, signed resignation letters from the assemblymen (or ADUN). The Election Commission disagreed and decided the seats weren’t vacant. The Sultan called the 28 Barisan Nasional assemblymen plus the three defectors to meet with him, and then decided that the Mentri Besar (Chief Minister) has lost the confidence of the Assembly, compelling the Mentri Besar to resign. He refused and the constitutional crisis blew out of proportion.

The question here isn’t whether or not the Sultan acted unconstitutionally (I’m not sure – but he did violated the spirit of Westminster convention by not dissolving the State Assembly at the request of the Mentri Besar). What happen next was the Barisan Nasional, the unpopular usurpers (why else would they want to avoid state elections by all means?) escalating the constitutional crisis by eroding and permanently damaging the institutions of democracy in Malaysia. (A better summary here).

Lets look at the casualties:

- End of separation of powers: the Courts decided to hear and make an ruling on the State Assembly proceedings despite the fact that the Federal Constitution specifically prohibits this. Interestingly enough, the Courts still have not recognised the 3 March 2009 sitting as illegal, therefore Zambry and his six “executive councillors” are still legally suspended from the State Assembly.
- Death of the courts’ legitimacy: A junior Judiciary Commissioner, who would be elevated to be a High Court Judge based on an “evaluation” of his work (thus you see his incentives) was given such a important constitutional case. He made a huge mockery of the constitution by denying Sivakumar (the Speaker) his legal representatives – instead forcing him to be legally represented by the opposing side (the Perak “state government”).
- Abuse of police powers: The police have gone out of their way to act in Barisan Nasional’s favour – such as ejecting the Speaker out of the House. This includes the rash of arrests in Ipoh of people eating in restaurants wearing black shirts (fashion police, heh). This includes kidnapping a certain Monash University lecturer and extending his remand without charges.
- Perversion of the civil service: The civil service in Perak showed their loyalty to Barisan Nasional by specifically ignoring orders by then-indisputable constitutional and elected office holders – including closing the State Assembly on 3 March 2009.
- Erosion of democratic institutions: when the Speaker declared the State Assembly seats of the crossovers vacant, due to signed, undated letters, it wasn’t the Elections Commission competency or responsibility to ascertain the validity of the resignation letters. If the resignation letters have no legal weight, the aggrieved assemblymen could have gotten a stay at the Courts and keep their seats while the courts (who actually have the authority and competency to do this) deliberate. Instead, Barisan Nasional ended all pretenses of the Elections Commission’s neutrality.

On the other hand, BN did the opposition PR a huge favour. PR is made up of three parties – Parti Keadilan Rakyat or PKR (People’s Justice Party), secular, social democratic, Chinese-dominant Democratic Action Party or DAP, and Islamist Parti Islam Se-Malaysia or PAS (Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party).

Despite the fact DAP won the higher number of seats in Perak last year, PAS was given the post of chief minister (the Sultan favoured him, and constitutionally, only a Malay-Muslim could be chief minister). Nizar proved to be a very competent administrator and leader, and his popularity rose – particularly among non-Muslims. And with the coup in Perak, non-Muslims rallied around Nizar, sending him to Parliament in Kuala Lumpur at the Bukit Gantang by-election.

PAS has moderated itself significantly since 2008, and in June, would probably see a rise of the “Erdogun” wing in PAS – liberal Islamists who prefer to cooperate with other opposition parties instead of the ruling Malay-Muslim UMNO (the kingpin of the BN coalition). A year and a half ago, nobody, not even Anwar Ibrahim himself, would have predicted such rapport between DAP and PAS, and the liberalization of PAS.

On swine flu, the Causeway, and Penang

Love, love, love Penang. If I ever move back to Malaysia, Penang would be a top consideration. There is a certain vibe, a feel, a certain je ne sais quoi.

I had a lot of fun at MTT’s Akademi Merdeka; will write about it later.

But I didn’t buy a return Penang-Singapore ticket, which is pretty stupid on my part considering Sunday’s the end of a long weekend. However, a big shoutout and eternal gratefulness for Wan Fadzrul Wan Jan, Adam Ismail, and Noor Amin bin Ahmad for sending me to Pudu, KL from Penang.

My hatred for the new Johore CIQ building on the Malaysian end of the Causeway has been superceded by new found hatred of the Woodlands side. Honestly. Swine flu checks? Is that necessary? Is it worth delaying everyone by an hour?

Speaking of swine flu, this was found in my mailbox:

SMU’s Crisis Management Group (CMG) has activated SMU Visitor Screening with effect from Monday, 4 May 2009.

All visitors are required to fill up visitor travel declaration forms and have their temperature taken before allowing entry into the Schools and Administration Building. The visitors are required to display the coloured sticker upon clearing the temperature screening. Each building will have a single Visitor Screening entry point for the visitors.

Worse, worse:

As such, SMU requires strigent temperature screening process to be implemented immediately, hostel is no exception.

Therefore, for the sake of your own health as well as that of your friends’,

From tommorrow, i.e. May 3rd Sunday onwards (inclusive), each and every of the resident has to take temperature at the security office and record it, once a day.

All you have to do is to go to the security office when you go out or come back, take your temperature (theorometer is in place) and record it (record forms have been printed out for everyone, with a template attached to this mail). Worry not, the entire process will take no more than 1 minute to complete.

Why? Because of two confirm case, one each in South Korea and Hong Kong. Sigh.